Try Everything: Difference between revisions

Subtrope of [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]. The inevitable process where, lacking a guide or any hope of solution after they'd exhausted the saner, more rational responses, people ''will'', out of frustration, resort to [[Use Item|using every single item]]/trying every option with every other item/funnily shaped spot on wall/steampunk eggplant. As the reasoning goes, you've tried everything else, why not Try Everything? Has varying chances of success and limited efficiency, but sometimes it's the only option. In real life too (commonly referred to as "Brute Forcing"). Can lead to people shouting, "[[Guide Dang It]]!", because, really, if you're just trying everything rather than reasoning through it, it's just as brainless as consulting a guide -- andguide—and it takes a lot longer.

Related to [[Solve the Soup Cans]], where it's about situations that are impossible unless this is employed. Also related to [[Speak Friend and Enter]], where the solution is so obvious that you [['''Try Everything]]''' ''before'' you consider it.

* In ''[[Professor Layton and the Curious Village]]'', solving many puzzles simply requires inputting a letter or single-digit number. Players who are stumped can [['''Try Everything]]''' by going through the entire alphabet or number line until they hit the right answer.

* One tried and true method when getting stuck in adventure games is the brute force method -- trymethod—try to combine every item with every other item until you find something that works.

* Although ''[[A Vampyre Story]]'' mostly averts this trope, it has one puzzle that appears to be designed around it -- youit—you have to take an item from a stack of several, try to use it, return to the stack, notice that one of these things is not like the others, then take ''that'' and use it to solve the puzzle. The problem is that until you try using the incorrect item the game won't acknowledge that there's anything notable about the rest of the stack, nor will it give you any other hint that might suggest a need to return to something you've apparently exhausted. It looks as though the designers expect you to get desperate and start trying everything to eventually bring you back to the stack to find out that "hey, this one looks different, let's try it."

* ''[[Theresia]]'' does its best to avert this by way of [[Booby Trap|Booby Traps]]s. Clicking on everything tends to result in getting peppered with arrows or stabbed by a flying knife.